Exploring the IPMS National Convention: Journeys, Purchases, and Community Highlights

Well, Dave, it's the first day. We've sure talked to a lot of people already.

My Lord, have we? I mean, I was hoarse this morning. Yeah, it's absolutely amazing. We got here yesterday afternoon, which was Wednesday afternoon, made one circuit of the vendor room and we must have talked to 70, 75 people and just you know people, we've known listeners, just vendors. It's fantastic. And man, this show is beautiful. It's a great facility. The drive up was easy. You drove for us. It was seven hours. We brought our mandatory Australian with us and I can't say enough. It's only Thursday morning and I'm super impressed.

Well, we got fan favorite Evan McCallum here with us. What do you think this year, man?

Well, it's only just getting started still, but I've already spent a lot of money in the vendor room and I haven't actually really seen the display area yet. We saw it yesterday when we were putting our models up, but it was still pretty early.

We've not been to the model room yet.

Yeah, I've got to get in there and see all the cool stuff. I mean, I'm going to come there the next day and then there's going to be more stuff and then there's going to be more stuff.

Exactly, exactly. I'm letting it fill up a little until we walk through it, but yeah, it's just.

Did you bring any? Oh yeah, I brought two models. I brought my Panzer III I finished recently and my Chinese amphibious thing.

That's the you had the Panzer III at Heritage Con.

Yes, but it didn't have the base at that point oh that's right.

It know the base yet Well, I look forward to seeing that.

I really like the scheme on that Chinese, the multi-tone blue, gray, whatever.

It's stunning and hideous at the same time.

That's a great way to put it, but it seems to have sparked an interest in Chinese, modern Chinese AFVs for you.

Yeah, well, I already had a little bit of interest, but I bought that. And then I bought the ZL C2000 that you brought for me at HeritageCon, and then I'm eyeing every single Chinese armor kit that exists at this show.

And you've already scoped out a couple here that you're going to have to acquire, sooner or later, right.

Absolutely, and it's impressive this year because all the vendors are in one room. Yes, last year, and I believe the year before, they had them distributed out in a few areas, but if it's all in one spot like this, it's a little overwhelming, it is.

In fact Mike was talking about the vendor room is so large it's almost hard to get an impression. I can't tell me if people are here Of how big and how crowded it is because the aisles are really wide. How crowded it is because the aisles are really wide.

It's cavernous in a really good way. Ceiling size is not too loud in here.

Yeah. So let's see, we got together last night, had a nice meal Again this morning just talking to people having a great time. We've got the podcast Q&A coming up. You've got a seminar tomorrow. Steve Hustad's got a seminar tomorrow. Right after mine Back to back, so I'm looking forward to this Again. People need to pay attention to the seminars. They are fantastic and they're an underappreciated thing. Have we ever had this?

back-to-back thing before what, where they conflict because they're side-by-side kind of thing side kind of thing.

Yeah, uh, you know what depends on the facility and how many of the uh conference rooms a facility has as to how many uh seminars they can. Seminar tracks they can get running, but yeah, I mean, that does happen. That's why when you, when you first get to the convention, you take the seminar list and you go through it right away and circle because you're going to need to look and see you know two seminars that you want to see both of them and if do they conflict. Sometimes they run the same seminar multiple days and you got to pay attention to that what have you bought, ev?

Have you spent much money yet?

I spent a little bit. I bought a couple kits yesterday. A Dragon kit I was looking for and I traded something for a modern Russian tank. And I'm just picking up all the little bits of stowage and value gear, bits and bobs because that's definitely what you look for at this show like decals, sheets, figures, little bits of aftermarket here and there, and it's always a good price.

Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, it's as much for that as it is for the kits and also the books, I mean.

Oh, the books too. Yeah, they're really good. I think you spent more money than me, though.

Yeah, so far, but you're going to catch up, we'll have a tally on the last day.

Yeah, we'll touch base again. Well, we'll let you get back to your friends and spend some more money. Yeah, absolutely. See you at your seminar, all right.

Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby.

Let's join Mike and Kentucky Dave as they strive to be informative, entertaining and help you. Episode 120, and this is going to be our IPMS.

National Convention recap episode where we get into some of the segments we recorded while at the convention and some commentary around that Dave, to quote Jed Clampett well, doggies, yes, sir. Wow, that doesn't begin to touch it.

Well, let's frame it with what's up in your model sphere, dave.

All right, what's up in my model sphere is I am on a post-convention high. I am also, I think, the most exhausted I've ever been when I've come back from a convention. Wow, it was wow. I've been to 28 or 29 of these things. If this wasn't number one, it was number one, two or three.

It was amazing, but it made the walking around downtown Madison in the evenings to get dinner just super pleasant. Or going to the farmer's market on Saturday morning before the convention opened. There's only one thing I could think of that would have made it better and I think will probably end up being done at future conventions, is live streaming the awards ceremony. They had an overflow room, like they do many conventions, but they were not able to, for whatever reason, live stream it so that you could sit in your hotel room and watch the award ceremony. But other than that, it was just amazing, amazing, and I came home exhausted. All the walking, all the talking, all the really great meals my wallet came home lighter We'll explore that later Just quality all the way around. The guys and gals at Madison are to be congratulated for pulling it off, and not only pulling it off but making it look easy. So what'd you think of it, mike?

All that and a bag of chips. So what'd you think of it, mike? All that and a bag of chips. It's currently in my model sphere living the paradox of being supercharged to get some stuff finished and get onto some new projects, but being just too dang exhausted to even want to crack a bottle of paint or pick up a pair of tweezers at the workbench.

Yes, I've had just a. I mean, I probably had less than an hour's worth of modeling since I got back, and a lot of that is modeling in very slow motion.

But I agree with you on all points. I just think it was just a super venue. The weather was phenomenal. I wish there was a place on earth where it was 72 degrees and 30% relative humidity all the time.

Yep.

That's probably Nirvana.

Or San Diego.

I don't even know if it's.

San Diego man, Just absolutely pleasant.

It was, and there's just so much going on. And, yeah, jeff and his team did a fabulous job. I don't know, man, that was right up there.

Yeah, I'm hard pressed to think of a better one.

So I've just been thumbing through all my purchases and trying to figure out whether I'm up or down. Yeah, hopefully this weekend I'll get redirected and back to the bench, because I'm inspired to get my current slate of unfinished work finished and I've got a couple things. I want to start, some of them from the old list and some of them that have come to light just by attending Nats and buying stuff.

Yep, absolutely, Mike. Not that we didn't have some modeling fluid at the convention, but we also brought home modeling fluid from the convention. So do you have some modeling fluid tonight?

I do, dave, and it's a listener provided, as you alluded to, I'm enjoying a little Breckenridge straight bourbon whiskey. So what listener provided that to us? Mr Brad Belsham provided this and I'm most grateful for it. We'll get into it in the wrap up section, but so far it's pretty good, dave.

We sure enjoyed some at the show but so far it's pretty good, dave, we sure enjoyed some at the show. Yes, I will say, one of the really nice things about listeners bringing us modeling fluid from all over is we get to try modeling fluids that we don't ever see. A case in point is what I'm drinking tonight, which is Black Hops Brewery Super Hornet Double IPA. This is from Australia and was provided by our good friend, the quokka, paul Gloucester. There's zero chance I would ever have been exposed to this beer were it not for the fact that he hauled it from halfway around the world and brought it to us as a modeling fluid contribution. So I'm looking forward to this one.

Sounds good, man, mm-hmm. Well, we'll sit these down until we get to the end, but we got a little bit of listener mail. Yep, everybody's been kind of busy the last week, for obvious reasons, I wonder why, that said, though, we still have a few Okay, a couple for me, and I think you've got some as well, dave.

Yes, I've got a couple.

Well, this one's kind of interesting. Mr Robert Klein has written in and he's kind of coming off episode 118, as he has written this and Robert is in Morrowtown, virginia, which is in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, know exactly where it is, and he says he used to be stationed at Fort Knox and was a member of our club in 1988. I was there and I was too in and out.

Yeah.

That's when I well that was the first time I ever set foot in that geography. But anyway, he has fond memories of Brian's shop under Dr Hill's chiropractic office.

Yep.

We've had many hours of enjoyment under that chiropractic office.

Yep.

Our workshop was formed there and we've had many meetings there. And then, of course, brian's shop was there for a long, long time. He made many trips there. And then in 1989, robert and Rich Mitchell, pat Cooney and Dan Norman started the Goldbricker Scale Modelers up in Radcliffe, kentucky, which is the town adjacent to Fort Knox, and all those names are familiar.

Oh gosh, yes.

And he remembers coming to our shows and one time he won best of armor for his M4A1 Sherman 105 millimeter Misses the area. Great group of people, great group of modelers. Keep up the fantastic job with the podcast. Well thanks, Robert, and it's always interesting to hear from people who we've crossed paths with in the past.

Well, and I would echo his sentiments. I mean, we are not only are we very lucky to have a really good local hobby shop with scale reproductions, we're also lucky to have a really good model club, mmcl, the Military Modelers Club of Louisville. It's been going on since 1976. A great group of men and women. We've a long tradition of shows, of build days, of really great meetings, and so you know I look back on those and those are very, very happy memories and I remember the Goldbreakers too, and Rich Mitchell and all of those guys. I mean very, very fond memories.

Well, our next one. I really like this next one. It's from our friend from the Hamilton Club, duncan Young. And we just saw Duncan at Nats and we saw Duncan at Amps and we saw Duncan at HeritageCon. So we're seeing a lot of Duncan, and Duncan brought me a little present too. And we saw Duncan at Amps and we saw Duncan at Heritage Con. So we're seeing a lot of Duncan, and Duncan brought me a little present too. He brought us some bourbon too, yes, or whiskey, and we'll get to that later, but we might get to it here because it's part of his email. Okay, he's just back from Nats, like us, and he's offered us a few thoughts two days post-convention.

Ipms National Convention highlights Running into old friends and making new ones. Amen, that's the number one thing. Now let me get through these and then we'll chat about it a little bit. Sure, the wide variety of seminars. His top three included Fine Scale Modeler's 40 Years in Retrospect, panzermeister's Armor Weatheringing overview and ICM and the impact of the Ukraine-Russia conflict on their lives and business. Hanging out with all the other modeling delinquents in the dojo on Thursday evening, he told his roommate that he'd be gone for an hour and instead spent close to three hours out of the house, good times talking with the model geeks and scrolling through armor project photos with aforementioned Brad Belsheim, and then also getting up close with the armor category during judging on Friday night and hanging out with his fellow IPMS Hamilton club members Bernie Hack, alan Murrell and his daughter Ariel and he's got some information about his whiskey donation details that we'll save until we actually get that one on air as the modeling fluid. So what do you think of all that stuff, dave?

One of the things that made this convention particularly good was the fact that it was located close to the border with America's Hat. The Canadians showed up strong I mean super strong. They brought a bus and it was great to see them because we love our Canadian friends and really, really enjoy spending time with them. It was nice of them, nice for them to get to come to a US Nationals in force. Heritage Con is about as close as they get to a Nationals and it's a one-day show and it's an amazing one-day show, but there's nothing like the experience of a US Nationals, nothing like the experience of a US Nationals and I'm glad they got to experience it and it just made the contest that much better. He brought you another gift.

Yes, he did, the Hamilton Club did. And speaking of seminars, during the podcast roundtable and Q&A session we had the old Moosaroo reveal and kit distribution. Yeah, man, you couldn't't hit it any perfect. No, you thought you thought the mustang 70 second scale, uh, arma kit was right up your wheelhouse. Well, I think finally they've managed to sneak one in. That's probably Probably even more so.

Yes, the brand new ICM kit. The two German mini submarines, the Molk and the Seehund. The Molk and the Seehund and it's a brand new kit ICM, who showed up at the show, brought. These kits have only been released within the last six months or so. They are, right up my alley, a really, really nice looking and interesting set of kits. And the Canadians presented us with an additional challenge, which is not just building the kit but putting it in a vignette setting. Okay, and I'm really, really looking forward to giving this a run. So we're not allowed to start till August 3rd. So in the meantime, I'm fondling the kit, I'm doing my research, I've already ordered some aftermarket that I'll talk about later. So, yeah, it was fantastic. The Moosaroo is just a neat, neat, little enjoyable contest.

Well, that's all I got from the email side of things, Dave. Has anything come through Facebook direct message?

Yes, a few things. Well, actually a ton of stuff came through, but most of it was related to the Nationals, either people reaching out to us saying, hey, I'm here, where are you, Where's the dojo? I have some modeling fluid. Where do you want me to bring it? You know there was tons of that and I'm not going to bother to go over all that because we'll touch on aspects of it later. But there are three DMs that I wanted to point out. First is our friend Mike Halliday, who's in Iowa. Apparently, gumball Head has finally arrived in Iowa. He sent me a picture today. He was in the local grocery store or liquor store and sent me a picture. They have Gumball Head in Iowa now. So he was most pleased, as he enjoyed Gumball Head and so he's now really happy to have access to it.

Well, a few people enjoyed it in the dojo too yeah.

Yeah yeah, they hit what we brought hard, but we also received many, many good beers. Our German friend really supplied us well, so good time in the dojo was had by all. Next modeler, bobble Young. We first met him personally face-to-face at Wonderfest this year where he brought his latest creation and he was really great to talk to. And then he again was at the Nationals with the same model, got to talk to him a little more and finally reached out and were able to make a connection on Facebook so that we can DM in the future, and he was shocked that we weren't already connected through Facebook. So it was really nice to make that connection and I'm looking forward to using it in the future to ask him plenty of questions about his creations.

Well, I think he might have won Best of Show, Dave. Oh, did he? I think so.

I would not be at all shocked by that. I didn't stay for the end of the award ceremony because it went on really late and you and I had to get packed up and ready so that we could get out early Sunday morning. But it would not surprise me that we got to see that model close up at Wonderfest. Close up at Wonderfest, and it is an amazing model, an amazing piece of engineering and would be well-deserved to win Best of Show. Got any more? Yeah, one more.

This happens to people and I want to express my sympathies. Larry Donovan, who isn't that far away from Madison, had life intervene and thus wasn't able to come to Madison. We all have life and we all understand. You know, this is our hobby, it's not our job, it's not, you know, it's not the number one thing. So sometimes you have to make the sacrifice and it really hurts hard when you make that sacrifice and the show is very, very close to you. So I assured that, I assured Larry that we would hoist one in the dojo thinking of him, and we did at least one. I hope that he gets to come to Hampton next year because I have zero doubt, having been to previous shows in the Hampton and Virginia Beach area that this is going to be a really really good show as well.

Is that it? That's it, dave. One of the things we try to do when we go to the national convention or really any show, regional invitational amps, whatever we try to seek out some unique things that may not be I don't know how to say it as mainstream as some other things?

maybe that'd be a good way to say it, and I think for a lot of modelers real space kind of falls into that category. It's not as represented as heavily as armor and aircraft and cars and a whole lot of other stuff, but we love it and it's down to it. And he had a nice display, had a lot of nice kits and the real space folks were certainly cruising by his table and buying stuff.

Dave Goldfinch had placed a massive pre-order with him, so we got to hear about that on the way up to Madison and having seen his stuff, I can understand why Dave spent money at that vendor.

Well, Dave, we always try to give real space a little love and we've got a standout real space vendor here at the IPMS National Convention, Just to cross the way from us, Mr Chris Drew of Shadow 3D. Chris, thanks for stopping by and having a little chat with us.

Oh, I appreciate it. I appreciate you giving me the venue to get my name and my product out to the audience. Well, why?

don't you explain to us what all you've got going on over there? Okay, well.

I'm a retired Air Force officer, a space miss officer, taught school for five years, so I decided to make a change and start my 3D model company. I want to focus on space launch rockets because it's a niche that's not covered. Well, no, it's not. So my goal is to provide high quality, high detail, reasonably cost you know, priced kits. Now, how long have you been doing this? Ten months.

Okay that, I did not realize you were that recent into the market?

Yes, 10 months. I started 10 months ago with five different rockets. I now have 23. Are you doing?

your own CAD or your own?

CAD work.

I do all the work, all the CAD printing decals, instructions, everything.

What kind of printer are you using? I'm using the Elegoo Saturn III Ultra.

Okay, Because you print some pretty big parts. I mean, I've got to say you've got some of your sample parts out on display and two things One, the detail is incredible and two, there's some rather large parts. Do you have any problem printing those?

Not usually. The height is usually not so much of a problem, it's just making sure I don't run out of resin during the print. Yeah, that's a problem sometimes, Mike sympathizes with that and with living in Florida. The longer prints, sometimes with the thunderstorms, it gets nerve-wracking not to make sure you don't lose power in the middle of a print. Yeah, that Gotcha so you're out of Florida when, yes, I live in Niceville, florida.

so near Destin Gotcha. I know exactly where it is.

Well, the product looks really good and I think a testament to that is I call them the IPMS Real Space Mafia. There's a small cadre of four or five guys that we saw over there Mike Idekavage and Mike Mikowski, and all those guys and I think I know Mike bought something. And then our travel companion, Dave Goldfinch, from On the Bench, had a preorder with you and stopped over there. He's a big real space guy. Is it proven popular?

It seems to be I've done really well so far. Okay, well, that's good. That's good news, you've got two days to go. I'm only halfway through the show and I've already surpassed what my minimum hopeful goal was going to be for the entire show that's great, that's good news.

So now, a 70-second scale is my favorite scale and because you're doing these as 3D print, you can scale them to any scale you want, and I know, while a lot of the products you have are 196 or 144th on your table, you'll print any of them in 70-second scale as a special order for your customers right, yes, I do.

Okay, I haven't had enough sales to justify bringing a 72nd scale of each of the kits. That's a lot of resin. That's a lot of resin and a lot of cost for just getting started Right. There's a few kits I might start bringing one of to a show. But I have started to have pickup on my orders. On the 72nd scale, how many, how?

many uh shows have you vended at?

I know this is your first national obviously I think this is my sixth or seventh show total, okay in 10 months. Well, that's impressive I've been trying to do one about every month, every six weeks or so.

Gotcha, oh, wow so what do you have coming up? What's your next product that's not currently available, but that you're working on, and you plan?

to have out soon. That would be my Jiminy Titan kit oh okay. I expect to have it out by the end of August if everything goes.

good, have it out by the end of August if everything goes good and that's a real hole in the real space arena because there's not a good one out there and on this one.

this is also one of the handful of kits I am also going to be producing in 48 scale.

Oh, wow.

Oh man, yeah, We'll be impressive, you can see that.

That'd be a nice model in that scale.

Yes, all my ICBMs are available in 48 scale. Oh, okay, wow, so the LGM-25C Titan II will be following right after Jiminy Titan.

Okay, that makes sense, since there's so much commonality to it. Now, obviously you do mail order. Yes, where can people find?

you on the Internet. Obviously, you do mail order. Where can people find you on the Internet Right now? The best way to contact me is actually to find me on Facebook. Shadow3d, that's S-H-A-D-O-W-3-D Right. Make sure you put a space between Shadow and 3D to find me on. Facebook to find pictures of my products. The best way to contact me is to email me at shadow3dmodels at gmailcom.

Okay, shadow3dmodels at gmailcom.

We've got your card here and we'll put all that in the show notes when the episode drops, and hopefully, things will move for you.

Appreciate it. I am building a website. I do have a web address now it is shadow3dmodelscom, but I have not got it built yet, gotcha.

I just got the web address. Last week, well, I assume that you've been, in addition to vending, you've been doing a fair amount of mail order, because I know Dave Goldfinch pre-ordered stuff and you were kind enough to bring it to the show to him. I assume that's the main channel of your sales. Is mail order? Yes?

Okay, okay. The show has been the way to get my name out Gotcha, gotcha and meet my customers, get feedback, get suggestions.

Well, your table seems to be busy pretty much constantly, so it's obviously working for you.

So far it has been, and customer feedback is why my Project Mercury, redstone and Atlas are done now and long doing Jiminy Titan. I had so many responses at Chattanooga wanting those kits, I pushed them up the build timeframes.

I was going to ask what's your most requested thing?

that you don't have yet. A lot of people have been asking for Saturns. Okay, so my plan I'm hoping to have for Nationals next year is Saturn 1B, apollo 7.

Yeah, has that one been kitted before?

by anybody. Airfix has done it and there's a couple resin kits that are harder to find. The Airfix kit now is very difficult to find. It's not in production anymore. And it had its challenges it has its challenges and the other kits that resin kits out have their missing details.

So I'm going to try to.

You're going to fix all that. I'm going to try to get it fixed and have a very well-detailed kit.

Okay, good. Well, if it's anything like the ones you've got over there now, it ought to be a slam dunk.

Yeah, you've got some great stuff. It's good to see you, good to see your product and you know I'm always happy to see new, new manufacturers come out and fill a niche that there's a real demand for I appreciate it because I'm also going to branch out a little bit into aircraft okay okay, what types of things you uh right now I a I'm planning on doing a near complete 1-144th scale B-52 series Okay, and KC-135 series.

I'm also getting ready to start the research for an XB-70.

I was about to ask are any of the X planes or lifting bodies in your interest, I plan on doing probably the X-37.

Okay, you know the space plane. Yes, since it fits the niche and part of the whole bit and there's other kits out there I'm thinking about doing, I'm strongly considering doing a 72nd scale Y-1B-17. Okay, just because it's never been Right Kitted other than that one. Rare planes back in form, yep.

Yeah Well, cool, hit it, other than that one. Uh, rare planes back and form. Yeah, yeah well cool. Well, listen. Thanks for joining us. We wish you the best of luck, thank you appreciate you having me on your show? No, no problem. Um, and again, it's a shadow 3d mr chris drew and if you like real space, you're gonna want to, gonna want to check it out I'll tell you what, mike.

I don't know about you, but I was impressed by what this vendor has done of the catalog that they have and the ability to basically print any of their items in any scale you want. I can tell you that I've already talked to Mr Drew and he's going to be printinga SpaceX Falcon 9 for me sometime in the very near future in 72nd scale. This is cutting edge, this is. I think we're going to see more vendors like this, and boy is it going to expand the modeling opportunities that the real space modelers have, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Well, I was impressed too. He had a lot of stuff and he had a lot of stuff on a one table, I think, for a while, and then I think maybe there was a vacancy opened up next to him. He kind of spread out a little bit. But yeah, he had a lot of stuff and the guys I call the real space mafia were certainly. I think I saw them all cruise by his table at one point. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I know Mike out of Cavitz had mentioned him during our Real Space episode not too far back and yeah, it's looking pretty good.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, David, let's have a word from our sponsor.

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Dave, our next guest should be familiar to Plastic Model Models listeners it's Uncle Ed Barrett.

Yeah, it was good to see Ed at the show.

Well, ed was having a good old time at the show. Yes, he was, and he wanted to stop by and share a little bit. And he even put on a seminar about systems engineering as it relates to scale modeling, and let's get into that.

You got it.

Dave, yeah, we got a Plastic Model Mojo personality with us now. Yes, we do Uncle Ed Barrett Yep.

Fresh off, it's Dr Uncle too, Okay.

Dr Uncle Ed, dr Ed Barrett, it's Dr Uncle to you.

Okay, dr Uncle Ed. Dr Ed Barrett, fresh off giving a seminar yesterday on what he's spoken previously with us about.

How'd it go, ed? I think it went well and honestly, I've had people today come up to me and say they really enjoyed it. It was not what they were expecting. They were a little nervous. I should have put in the title no math was involved, because I think people, honestly, I thought people in system engineering, I thought people might take it a little too esoteric or I was going to start showing equations and this and that and algebra and stuff. Yeah.

Differential equations.

I think it went well and I think a lot of people came up and said yeah, you know that's. The big push was just that the model's quality is dependent on the viewing distance that most people will see it, and you should use that as a criteria for how crazy you should be in making the model flawless, that you're not doing anybody any favor, including yourself, to make a model flawless from closer than when anybody sees it.

So I assume that giving a seminar isn't the only thing you've been doing. Have you managed to spend a little money in the vendor room?

Yes, I did, and it's partly your fault. Good, partly your fault. You guys turned me on to this one-man army stencil. Yeah, we did you won one of our giveaways a long time ago and I'm using it here and the company is here and I actually got the guy to look at my kit and said he enjoyed it, and so I took the plunge and I bought another 30 second Dauntless set and another 30 second Devastator set.

Fantastic.

Speaking of that model, we went up there. We saw you up in the model room and looked over your stuff, saw your diorama, saw your big airplanes Nice stuff you must build for close distance.

Well, if you're going to build for Nats, nats is unforgiving. I mean you literally have to build flawless at three inches. Pretty much You're competitive here, yeah. But the flip side is, if you're not building for Nats, if you're building for your local thing, then building it flawless for three inches is a waste of your time.

Well, you know, I really like the large-scale planes you've done and I hope one day you'll graduate to 72nd scale and move up.

Just armor, I just do 72nd and the funny thing is Well that's a gateway.

72nd scale armor's a gateway. Next thing you know you'll build a helicopter. And then 72nd scale aircraft. I don't think so.

No, but I do like working in 70s. And the other thing I sort of like that I reminded people at the seminar was the whole point was about finishing kits. And we're sitting here at Natch and there are thousands of models upstairs, yep Thousands, all kinds of colors, paints, styles, but they have one thing in common they're finished. They're finished. That's right, they are finished.

As opposed to the ones down here in this room.

Hey, I've even got one finished, one up there.

I've even got a finished model up there that feels good.

I'll admit it, as opposed to all the people who have their shelves of doom. That's right, and so you know, work, finish it.

Yeah, Now are you judging tonight? No, I'm not judging.

I'm not judging tonight. I thought you had to be like volunteer for a couple of years.

Well, you volunteer in your first year. You do what's called OJT on-the-job training where you're a volunteer who's paired with a judging team, and so once you've done that, then you move on to the qualified list and then you can judge any of the following years.

Okay, well, I sort of misunderstood and I thought you had to commit to like a couple of years. And I can't commit to being in Virginia next year.

Yeah, oh, come on Ed, at least not this early. Come on Ed.

You're going to come to Virginia. You know you are.

That's coast to coast my plan next year would be to fly, because we drove this year, Sure, but I would fly to Virginia so I wouldn't really take anything. I'd check out the show and then we would use it as a road trip because we haven't been to South Carolina and North Carolina, that area town. Yeah, it would be good to kind of check that stuff out. I hear there's some sort of quilt museum in Paducah, Kentucky. There is.

Your wife would love it, trust me. Yes, and we hit the one in Lincoln, nebraska. It's an international one which was really very interesting, so we had fun there.

What do you got in the works? What's next down the pipe for Ed?

Well, that's a good question. I promised that I would go back to 3D. To get back, I have a 3D printer. I haven't used it in a while. I've committed to a 3D Mars rover that I've downloaded the files from. Nasa, and Bobo Young, who you guys met at WonderCon, is promised to tutor me on it, and so I'm going to put yeah, that's a pretty good tutor If you can get him to tutor you.

It's like Picasso teaching you to paint. Yeah, that's right.

So I can't pass that up. So that's a priority to get that. That's cool. Well, he's out there near you, right? Yeah, well, he's out in Pasadena and I'm in Northridge, basically. So he's promised to do that. That'll keep me busy. I'm still working with the museum and I might as well ask the Jovians if they can help me. I might as well ask the Jovians if they can help me. We want to do this diorama about a B-25 that was filmed at Edwards Air Force Base, because I'm working with the museum. Yeah, and I managed literally to find somebody who made that diorama with the 148th, but he only used the pilot, it's that thing. So we got him to donate it. But the trick now is we need to put a film crew to show. This is really what we're trying. So this was from Catch-22? No, this was from King. 9 Will Not Return.

Twilight Zone. Twilight Zone, twilight Zone, that's it. That's right, I'm wrong.

And so we're trying to find I've been looking all over this place for a 48th scale film crew Tripods, boom mics, director's chairs. There's a circular thing. We have some great reference pictures actually showing the film crew on set, and I've been looking around and the funny thing is I find these 3D printers. And as soon as I mention figures- they hide. You know. You want a rocket ship no problem. You want a gas can no problem. You want a figure, Forget it.

You may be stuck with converting some figures and scratch building the film equipment.

I may be, but I might as well put it out there, and I've asked pretty much everybody here and I found some sort of stuff that might pass, but it's been in 35th. Sure, it's nothing that's really finishable in 48th, and so that's my next goal to try to finish that for the museum. I think that's a neat idea.

We talked about it last time you were on yeah and it was yeah. I think it'll be cool. Hopefully somebody out there in the listening audience can help piece something together.

Honestly, if you do 3D figures, we would be interested in talking to you. Okay, all right.

This will get the word out. Yeah, you know.

I mean, if you can't advertise when you're on the damn radio, I mean what is the point? Yeah, and so I'll have to pick what I want to do next. I don't know, Probably another 48th?

I'm not sure.

I still have an Edward Wildcat that I haven't finished believe it or not because I was caught up with the 32nd and that took longer than I thought, and so I might go for that. I don't know, I'll look at the stash and see. I'll have to look at the stash and see what talks to me. I understand that completely. I mean, don't they talk to you too?

They do. They talk a little louder when I maybe have a stencil set for something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know.

Build, me build me.

I would like to see a 30-second Dauntless from you.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I'm amazed at the quality here. I'm just, I am floored.

Close me away.

I am floored.

Well, Ed, we're going to get you back on the show for an episode again here, hopefully before the end of the year, and we talked about maybe even third chairing you. Yeah.

I would be happy to be caught, you know, in any scene of crime with you people you got it. We almost did last night.

Yeah, that's right.

Yes, and I made it home and I found the Monjovians who gave me a ride home. That's good Good for them, and so, yes, and I'm looking forward to all your next stuff.

Well, thank you for stopping by, man, it's been great. Thanks, ed, for stopping by man, it's been great. Thanks, ed. You know, mike, it's always good to see Ed Typical, you know. I know he's spent most of his life in California, but he's your typical New Yorker Just gregarious, wants to meet everybody, wants to talk with everybody, and he could talk your ear off. But the conversation's always good. The only thing I regret is that we didn't get to see his seminar because it was exactly opposite the podcast roundtable. But I understand from people who went that it was really very interesting and Ed's one of those people that I always look forward to seeing at the Nationals.

Well, he was lobbying hard to come back on the show and possibly even get in the third chair, and I think we're going to honor that at some point in the future. So that's good. I tell you he went on to Oshkosh, to the air show, yeah.

As did.

Evan as did Evan.

But Ed's pictures in the corsair are better than evan's. Yes, yes, because it looks like a three-year-old in the candy store yes, he does, and I would venture to say ed's a little bit older than I am and, my gosh, he looks like a child who has just absolutely won the toy lottery. He's sitting in there grinning ear to ear.

Well, he says a bucket list item, and I'm glad he kicked that bucket down, because that's what life's all about, man, amen.

Well, Mike, I assume your wallet's a little lighter than it was last week at this time.

Last week, at the time of this recording, we were enjoying our first night in Madison, wisconsin.

That's right, we had just made the first passes through the vendor room.

And I don't think I'd bought anything yet, but that certainly changed as the day went on.

Yeah, I look back on it, and I didn't spend, money-wise, as much as I might have thought I did. But boy, I got a lot of stuff. So what did you get? What broke your wallet?

I don't know where to start At the beginning. We're going to do it sequential.

That's any way you choose. Well, I'm going to start with books.

Okay, there were two primary book vendors there. David Doyle was there, of course. He did a lot of shows in our region actually.

And then Casemate Books, yep, and I picked up one book from panzer tracks. Well, the folks at panzer wrecks have kind of started well, they've reconstituted that line of books right and I'm really, really glad because there were a bunch of titles that I didn't have yet and and when, when, when tom, when Tom Yen's passed, things kind of shut down and I was really really, really glad to see these books come back. So I got from David Doyle. I got Panzer Tracks number 15-2. It's the book on the SDKFZ-251 ALFs A, b and C and really glad to get it. I haven't bought a Panzer Trax in man a long, long, long time and I'm really glad to see these books back. And they're a little different now. They're on slick paper, so not that they were bad before, but I think the photos are a little sharper because of that and the cover and front and back are a little sharper because of the heavy card and slick paper. Real nice book.

But I really went nuts at Casemate.

And I'll tell you why. That's easy to do, because Casemate was running 30% off. Yes, yes, and they may have even been doing a little rounding in there too. They were indeed. I bought five books from Casemate From MMP Books carry the what's called the single vehicle series. Right, I suspect they're polish in origin they are it's mushroom model publications yeah, mushroom model.

And the first one I got was polish armored drazine tk, which is a rail carrier for the little TK tankette. And I tell you, man, for a book that's only got 28 pages and was $12 list price this thing's got a lot of nice drawings in it and a lot of nice original blueprint scans in it.

And you know, I don't know if I'll ever build anything based on this book, but if I ever decide to, I can, because I think this is pretty much a single source, one and done kind of reference, which is always good. Yeah, I also picked up two from Cogero. I like Cogero stuff. Yep, another Polish, another Polish publisher, their top drawing series. I got number 47 and number 122. The 47's on the Renault FT and the American version, the M1917 light tank, and then 121's on the Ferdinand tank destroyer German vehicle. Lots of line drawings, color profiles. For the money I think we can debate the accuracy of the color plates or the the line drawings ad nauseum, but for the money they're definitely a good starting point and I did not have anything on the ft-17, so I'm good to get that yep, I like the ft-17.

It just to me is neat and the kagero purchases continue their photo sniper 3d series. I got number 14, which is volume one for the Hetzer and G 13, and then volume 29, which is again the Renault FT 17 and the M 1917. Now the Hetzer G 13 one is interesting because what it offers beyond what has already been published. I've got several books on on the hetzer.

I think most of them are from motorbooks, international, mmi or mbi, mbi, and I think some of this stuff is a little bit of a repeat. But they've got these cutaway isometrics and cutaway elevations of the Hetzer that are really good and they kind of help you get perspective in the 3D space as to where stuff is, versus just a line drawing. Just really well done. Now the FT-17 book does a lot of the same thing. There's a really good photo essay of a restored vehicle, a really good photo essay of a of a restored vehicle, and then there's 3d, basically a 3d walk around of all the color schemes that they they show in their color profiles. So good stuff, man. I really like some. I really like some books and I got some good ones, I think you're?

you're a librarian who occasionally builds models.

Yeah, my shelf's almost full. I'm going to have to get an annex.

Yep.

What about you, man?

Well, wait a minute, you bought some kids. You go for your first one. Oh, okay, we're going back and forth, okay, book-wise, I only purchased two books, but they were both ones that I was looking for. They're both out of the At War series that Casemate has. One is on the Cuban Revolution and the Bay of Pigs, and then one is on Indochina 1946 to 49, basically the period of Japanese occupation, followed by the French retaking their former colonies and the beginning of the first stage of the Vietnamese Revolution, slash Vietnamese War. When Casemate had 30% plus off, I could have spent a whole lot more. I had to restrain myself because at that kind of discount it was really easy to start talking yourself into a bunch more purchases. But since this show, I actually leaned pretty heavily into kits, so I only ended up with two books. So what kind of kits did you buy? I only bought two, and one of them is older than you are.

I don't know about that, but it's pretty old. It's close. Well, it's from the 70s. But we'll get to that. Second, the first kit I bought was from Special Hobby. Always comes in the Nats, always has a big spread. I got a Heinkel AT-162. Yep, volksjager or Salamander.

Yep and we may have plans for that in the future. Might we?

We might. We might do a buddy build. Yes, because you bought one too. I bought one too. I bought one too. I'd rub the I. I've wanted this kit for a while because I really like the aircraft and at last year's gnats in texas they only had the allied captured version, right, which is the same kit, just different, different markings, right? Right. And I just kind of hedged on that because I? I thought that the decals in the kit were probably gonna be pretty good and completely usable. Oh yeah, I was waiting to get a shot at the German boxing.

And that's what I got, man. And it didn't hurt that Special Hobby was discounting too.

Yeah, it tried to upsell me, but I had some fortitude there. Good for you. Now, my other kit purchase was an Airfix. American M3 Lee in 32nd scale. Got this from Rare Plane Detective.

Yep.

And yeah, the intent is to build this thing. I've actually got one in the stash but it's kind of trashed. But the box on this one is beautiful. Yeah, real nice box. I'll probably end up framing the box top somehow. I just like this artwork. It's all there, it's in the bag, as opposed to my other one which I discovered. There's something missing from it at some point. Sure, you know, for the early 70s this wasn't a bad kit. No, it's a great kit. I would argue. It's probably better than the Monogram 30-second scale Lee Right kit. I would argue it's probably better than the monogram 30 second scale lee right. That might be a stretch, but I think it probably is, and I don't know. It just called my name and I bought it. Now, kit wise you, you went, nuts man well, I'm okay.

Volume I I got a lot of volume, but I got a lot of volume, but I got a lot of good deals.

You did, you did.

Okay, starting at the beginning, from Andy's Hobby Headquarters I bought the DOSWork U9. As longtime listeners know, when this kit was announced it immediately tickled my funny bone. But when it came out I did not pick up one right away. And then, you know, I looked at it and looked at it and was looking for a deal, couldn't find one and couldn't bring myself to pay full boat retail plus and so I put it off and put it off and you and I walked by Andy's table which had a lot of really neat stuff, their 116th scale line new DOS work U-boat, the U-9, for $80. And that was at least 25 to $30 cheaper than I've seen it anywhere without shipping. So I pulled that trigger really, really quick. I was happy to buy that one.

A lot of the vendors were just like we mentioned with Casemate were running deals. One of the deals that really got me was Edward was there with all of their stuff. Now they weren't there Wednesday. They apparently got held up and they didn't arrive until after the vendor room closed on Wednesday. But they were there bright and early Thursday and they were basically running 25% off everything. And then they made you a little better deal on Saturday. They had their Overtree kits. Overtrees are just the kit parts in a box. There's no instructions, no decals, no masks or other aftermarket. But at the discounted price they were basically selling them for between $8 and $9 a piece, basically selling them for between $8 and $9 a piece, and these are top-of-the-line Edward kits. So I ended up with a ME-109E4, me-109g5, g6, g14, spitfire Mark 16 Bubble Top. And what was the other one? Oh, p51d, their brand new P51D. They already had Overtrees as well.

I actually bought a second 109 kit for Skippy, gave that to him. We had lunch on Monday and I was able to get that kit to him. We had lunch on Monday and I was able to get that kit to him. In retrospect I wish I'd spent another $40 and bought like four more Overtrees kits, just simply because I mean, at that price they were almost giving them away. I'm super happy with those purchases. I also bought an HE-162 from Special Hobby and I also bought their re-released Whirlwind kit that has the upgraded parts. Oh, I got as the Musaru, I got the German submarine kits, so I did pretty good on models. I mean I came home with a stack. It is lucky for us that Dave Goldfinch drove back from Madison to Toronto with some Canadian modelers, because we were able to fill his space in the car with the items we acquired and we'd have had a tough time if we had had to haul him back as well.

We forgot some kits, man.

Wait a minute. Oh, the model collect kits. That's right. Yeah, I'm sorry, One vendor they weren't. I don't think they weren't a hobby shop. They weren't a traditional vendor, they were more of a secondary reseller. They had a bunch of Model Collect kits and they priced their Model Collect 72nd scale armor at $20 a pop, and if you bought multiples you got a better deal. So I ended up buying three Model Collect kits, Russian armor kits, a T-80, a T-72 or T-64, I forget which and a BMP-3, and got them for under $50, all three it was. I mean there were deals like that to be had everywhere. If I had allowed myself to go just stupid crazy, I could have walked out of there with more models than we would have been able to fit in the car on the way home.

Well, I think you fell somewhere between normal Kentucky Dave at the Nats and Stupid Crazy.

Well, volume-wise I did approach Stupid Crazy, but the prices were so good I look back on it I didn't spend that much money. Aftermarket, oh yes, aftermarket.

What did you get? I got one thing, dave. What'd you get? I guess tools and equipment will be a separate purchase category. Special Hobby had all the CMK stuff and I got some 72nd scale figures, some Imperial Japanese Navy pilots and mechanic figures and these might end up with the E-16 at some point, right and really for modeling aftermarket. That's all I bought.

Well, the only thing I really bought modeling aftermarket was I bought them more because I was amazed by them than anything else, although I can see myself using them 72nd scale. 3d printed bicycles. 3d printed bicycles yeah, he did, guys. I bought these because when you looked at them, they're unreal. I would not have believed that you could 3D print that fine a detail. I mean I'll put a picture up on the dojo. I literally stared at this thing and just could not wrap my mind around how they managed to print individual bike spokes in 72nd scale and not get misprint short shot all of the things that you can see with 3D printing sometime. I don't know what printer they're using, I don't know what. It was amazing enough to me that I shelled out the money to buy it and they probably weren't that much.

They were not again, and they were, they were discounting stuff too, so it wasn't.

It wasn't bad at all well between books and kits and aftermarket. I guess we're kind of left with tools and supplies.

Well, I bought a really nice poster or piece of art with Dick Bong's Marge that will go in my pool room where I hang all my aviation art. Really really nice print. That was very inexpensive given its size and its quality. And then I bought from the spray gunner guys. I bought a airbrush needle sharpener, a thing that you can use if you put a bend in a tip or something. With an airbrush you can actually dress the needle to bring it back into conformity, and that actually wasn't inexpensive. But I've actually used one. Our friend Randy Fuller had one and I've used his once or twice and I was really impressed by it and so I ended up picking one up. Did you get any tools or supplies?

I did. I bought a bunch of Infini sanding pads.

I did too, and also bought some thin gator grip white.

I got the Infini, the soft ones, the big, wide ones and I got their more normal ones. I guess it was the year of the sanding stick, because I got two sets of Infini stuff and then Squadron actually put a pack of the old Squadron sanding sticks in the registration packet.

Yes, which is a very nice thing, and we should mention Squadron was there in force and selling like crazy.

Yeah, they were pretty busy the whole time. But to go a little further, if I'm not entering models next year, I need to think this through. Because I registered for the convention Right, and I got a packet for that right. We registered as a vendor because we wanted the the pmm table to be in the vendor room right, I got a packet for that right, which, which I did not expect the vendors would get that pack.

I didn't either either I'm dense or that's new to me. That's new to me too, so we we appreciate it. But so the short of it is I ended up with two packs of squadron sanding sticks, yeah, and that's pretty cool. So I'm set for a while.

And two sets of 48 scale aircraft decals. So unless you see something on there you really want, we may have to find a way to give those away.

Yeah, I think between us we have three sets of those Exactly, and then I've got something from Bases by Bill. So yeah, more on that later. Well, dave, in keeping with our theme of the unusual, at the national convention there was a vendor table along the back wall for my organization called Air Corps Library. The representative for Air Corps Library was a Mrs Esther Albee, and I think she was from Montana. You know she told it better than either of us could, so let's just let her do it Absolutely. And either of us could, so let's just let her do it Absolutely. So, dave, we're always looking for unique things when we come to the Nationals, to emphasize and give some folks some exposure, and today we've run across Esther Albee from Air Corps Library.

Esther, why don't you tell us what you, what you do? Yeah, so air core library is a website that offers access to half a million world war ii aircraft engineering drawings and about 20 000 technical manuals wow, that's a lot it is a lot it's so now, these are the original manufacturers drawings absolutely yeah, and we source all the data from private collections.

You'd be surprised how many people have a box of microfilm in their grandpa's attic that they run across and they don't know what to do with it. And we're the only people out there that are making this information available online, and they're easy to search and find. Format.

Okay, now this is your all's first time at the IPMS USA Nationals, and I assume it's because the technical drawings would be something that a lot of modelers might have an interest in in working on their models.

Yeah, so the site was originally designed for people who do aircraft restorations, which is our main part of the business, gotcha, and the site's been up since 2015,. And about two years ago I did some demographic research and I realized that about 60% of the people who are using the website are model builders.

Okay.

And it was kind of a surprise to us and so I decided to come here and just see what it was all about and meet some people and kind of try to put my finger on the needs of what this industry might be looking for. And it's been fascinating.

Okay, Now all of this stuff is accessed through your website.

Yes, yep.

What's the website?

So it's aircorlibrarycom and it's membership-based, so it's $9 a month or $75 a year, and that membership gets you access to everything that we have on the site.

And is it all downloadable?

So you can purchase high-resolution files and pay to download those individually. But for model builders, usually what I tell people is just take a screenshot. I mean, there's no reason you need to print out the drawing in its original size because no one's building to that scale so yeah, people just take their screenshots and some people take the information to make 3d models and then 3d print off of those models. I mean it's a reference for people to use in whatever way they choose to use it Now.

all the manuals are those also downloadable for a fee as a PDF, correct?

yes, and those contain amazing images and exploded views. And I mean again, they're all the technical, military published documents, so it's source information. But they, in addition to the drawings, are a great resource.

Now, what time period does your database cover? From what year to what year do you have?

Well, we're talking about specific aircraft. I'd say it's my time, 1935 to 1950-ish. So we've branched a little bit out into some of the interwar year aircraft and I'd love to go back further and do some uh world war one aircraft if possible. I mean, the site is growing all the time.

We add new documents to the site every day, basically and are there some rarities in there, and there's a lot of those companies have either been merged or gone away completely, like Stinson and Volte and old manufacturers like that.

Yeah, I mean we have data for that. I mean we've got drawings for the BT-13, and we've got some Stinson drawings on there as well. I mean, the great thing about this data is that it was military distributed.

Okay.

So there's a lot of it just out there and it's been floating around ever since the war and, yeah, it's all in the public domain.

Okay, which is amazing. That answers that question. I haven't asked yet. A lot of it purchased are in the public domain.

You say you all are adding all the time. Is it just? Are you going out and looking for stuff? Or is this people coming to you saying, hey, I found this, do you want it?

It's mostly the latter. It's a little bit of both. Sometimes I'll hear through the grapevine about a collection of stuff that I get really excited about, and I'll reach out to somebody directly, but most of the time it's people who find something, or they've got a collection of stuff that I get really excited about, and I'll reach out to somebody directly, but most of the time it's people who find something, or they've got a collection of stuff and they're they don't want to throw it away. They wanted to go somewhere where the information is actually going to get used by someone. So they do some googling and, to be honest, there's not very many people out there. Well, we're the only people who are doing this at least the drawings, part of it online, and so when you search World War II microfilm, we're usually the first thing to come up.

All right, so yeah.

Is there any print photography or negatives in the collection?

Not yet, okay, no, but I'm really excited to branch out into other stuff. I was just talking to somebody this morning about maybe getting some armor drawings on there and, you know, branching out into vehicles and ships and it would.

Yeah, that's my dream, that would be fantastic and not to ask a proprietary question, but about how many members do you have accessing the site every year? Do you know?

um. Our membership usually hovers around 2000 okay ishish.

I mean it is pretty niche. But that's the amazing thing about modeling is that right now, even though 60% of our users are modelers, I would say it's still the bulk of the people using it are restoration companies and things like that. Modeling is kind of an untapped market. I mean, being here at Nationals there's's probably 98 of the people here have never heard of us and don't know what we're doing and don't know that we're a resource yeah, I've never known at all that any of this exists right, exactly.

So I'm just really excited to be here and talk to people about it and yeah well, how's it going generally it? It's going really good you staying busy over there.

Yeah, okay, that's good.

I thought that so in our restoration work it's so niche within aviation that I had made the assumption that World War II aircraft were niche in the modeling community too.

No, it's kind of the exact opposite. Exact opposite, the big deal yeah.

So that's been amazing for me. It's so cool to be in such a huge group of people that all are basically all of them are passionate about World War II aircraft, so that's awesome.

Now, are you all doing all of the back-end computer work? Do you build the website, Are you all handling or do you outsource that to a third-party company?

No, it's just us. I mean, we built the website from scratch. I'm a third party. No, it's, it's just us. I mean, we built the website from scratch. I'm the only person currently that works on the website. Gotcha, I guess I'm not a programmer, but um, we just hired a full-time programmer, um to do some updates and add some new features. Um, but yeah, right now it's just me and work on scanning and scanning and scanning and uploading. So there's lots of work to be done.

All right.

Well, anything else?

you'd like to share about it? I don't think so.

Repeat the website one more time. Oh sure, it's aircorlibrarycom. Yes and yeah, I'm just excited to keep working with model builders and get more into this community. It's been really fun to be here. It's been a great experience.

All right. Well, thanks for sitting down with us for a few minutes. Yeah, thank you.

We'll throw a link in the show notes and I'm going to have to check that out, mike. It was really interesting to hear the Air Corps story that they gathered and digitized all of this primary source material and were selling it to restorationists and then went and looked at their customer base and discovered that a bunch of it was modelers and so they decided to come to the Nationals, which that's. It's really smart. It's really pleasing to see a company look at its customer base and realize they had outlets and customers that they weren't necessarily targeting. She was a really good spokesperson for what they're doing and they've got a lot of really interesting stuff. And you're a modeler particularly if you're a scratch builder or a detailer they've got lots of stuff for you?

Well, they do. And I think the realization of the modeling side of that was all Esther yes, it was of. That was all esther yes, it was. And I don't know if you noticed, but she came by our, our table neighbor there, sometime later toward the end of the show and ended up buying a vintage sailing ship yes, I did. I'm curious what she's going to do with that I'm looking forward to her entering that at hampton well so folks check out air core library.

They've got a lot of, like Dave said, original source material, drawings et cetera for original airplane parts and airplane assemblies should prove useful to some of you out there.

Classic Model Mojo is brought to you by Squadron. Head on over to squadroncom for the latest in kits and accessories, all at a great price and with great service. Are you a modeler on the go? Check out the Squadron mobile app for your Apple or Android device for easy shopping from just about anywhere. Squadron adding to the stash since 1968.

Mike, it was nice to see Squadron at the Nationals. You know they're in the middle of their relocation, so they brought a ton of stuff and my understanding is that when they left the Nationals they were taking everything that wasn't sold to their new business location on the Georgia-Tennessee border.

Well, hopefully we'll get to catch up with Brandon. We should have caught up with him at the show.

Well, they were doing a land office business.

They were, and then we were completely enthralled with what was going on at the show. I'm talking to Brandon and we're going to get him on to talk about the Nats a little bit in the future and the move and what folks can expect going forward. But until that happens, dave, you know we run into friends of the show from all over the nation at the national convention, but sometimes we run into somebody who's a little closer to home.

Yep.

And this year, as usual, he's always there. Mr Ben Pluth, he's one of our region four friends Yep and he's always got some 48 scale aircraft stuff going on and a really good modeler and always fun to talk to.

Ended up getting the 148 scale MPM, me 323, gigant, and that's been one of my unicorns that I've been searching for for the last 10 years of modeling.

You need to contact Barry Numerick because he's got all the reference you're going to need to super detail that.

Yeah, that man is great with the fact that's like the 70 second scales that he's been pumping out and, yeah, with that one's like it's just been a dream to try and find one of those and not, uh, break the bank so how good a deal did we get um five large on that one, oh okay oh, my five benjamins yep five benjam. Now is it new? Yes, did Squadron have it here?

No? Or did you buy it from a different vendor? I bought it straight from MPM a special hobby, is it in production at?

all Very limited production.

I still see you know it's got its.

Yeah, so the thing was a number of years ago, mpm, they released like a solid resin kit of that and then I think they ended up updating it to fiberglass impregnated resin to lighten the load on it, because I believe the first versions they came out with you actually had to have almost a three-foot long dowel rod, or it's like a brass rod, to keep it from dripping in the drippy wings. Inverted Corsair.

So why has this been your holy grail kit? What particularly is it?

about that. So the thing is, it's like I've been wanting to collect as many german aircraft models out there on the market and get uh representation of it's like. Uh, I know the the bigger aircraft you can only get in 70 second scale, and this was one of those unicorns that had eluded me at many a show and the one opportunity that I had in dayton, I want to say about five, six years ago, um, an individual wanted to sell theirs for about eight benjamins and I was like it's like I'll I'll wait, and you got a great deal on this yeah, so that, and also the fact that it's just a massive airplane and just the cool factor of having that big of airplane, is just amazing.

Now you said that was the final purchase of your show. Yes, are you just out of money? Yes, are you leaving tonight?

No, I'm out of money and I'm not buying anything more. I'm going to just go around the tables and drool at things that I wish I could have picked up as well, but I'm I'm happy, as a clam, to finally find one of those check box off the list. Finally, done.

That's probably the most expensive one on the list yes, um, the other aircraft I've bought in the past that are probably the equally as expensive now than where when they were first released, were the um italian tri-motor aircraft like the sm uh uh 82 and the um savio machetta sm79. It's like a resin, um, but there again it's like those aircraft are really hard to build, and hats off to Harvey Lowe. He put one of those Italian tri-motors on the table up there, actually two of them, one 72nd scale and then one in a 48 scale. That are just absolutely amazing.

Now, did you bring anything to enter in the contest?

Yes, I did, dave. What did you bring? I brought the Monogram P-47 completely out-of-the-box build and that was supposed to be for a Monogram group build that the Model Mysterians were hosting. And then that group build kind of fell apart near the end, with different personalities on the show kind of fell apart near the end, with different personalities on the show kind of going their separate ways. So I ended up putting it aside because of the time frame and then I decided, yeah, might as well just bring it back out and finish it up and say, hey, it's like I actually finished it for the the build. So but yeah, it's like I actually finished it for the build.

Gotcha, but yeah, it's like I wanted to really showcase the fact that those old monogram kits can still be nicely done if you take your time with them.

Absolutely they can Well one more thing before we let you go here. You were doing something out in the other room. What was that about? So um?

so I got a little bit bored. It's like uh coming to some of the nationals in the in the past where it's like, once you've uh spent all that, you've spent, um, you know, it's like you walk around, it's like you definitely uh converse with a lot of people, but it's like I thought you know what it's, why don't I bring something to build and that P-47, to go full circle on it? I would go to Model Makers Union's meetings. It's a new club that Rob Adams started in Canada but he's with the Model Miscreants, or now the Model Insanity podcast and also the Model Makers Union podcast, or now the Model Insanity podcast and also the Model Makers Union podcast. I would go to the club meetings and work on it there, and now I've become accustomed to doing more mobile modeling.

So I have a toolbox that has pretty much full kit to do any sort of cutting and sanding and painting. But then also it's like the advent of of these uh all-in-one, uh handheld airbrushes with the old air compressors. Um, I really, uh really got bitten by the bug. It's like once I started using it and have pretty much moved away from my normal airbrush setup to these, to these little handhelds, because they actually work really great. So, yeah, it's like I was out there with Floyd Warner today building and then yesterday I was building as well the same ME-109 as he is. So it's like we were able to brainstorm and work off of each other's differences and what he's doing for building the 109 for the reviewer core.

Okay.

So it kind of worked itself out. And then also getting some inside tips of what I need to correct from the man that knows the aircraft in and out and you get many onlookers out there.

Yeah, some conversations.

Yeah, I was going to say it's like, the really cool thing is it's like uh, I before I came on the podcast here um, a group of kids are out there right now and they're uh taking over our space and uh actually building at this moment. So, okay, well cool, so it kind of uh brings it full circle. That that's what the nationals is about and it really helps to see that spurring on the hobby with the younger generation getting out there and seeing uh, me and floyd building, they, they got the itch to go ahead and start building themselves. And that's really special there, that that you can't, you can't uh instill enough in the younger generation.

That's a good thing, man yeah, well, listen, thanks for stopping by the table. We'll let you get off to your late lunch. Yep, I got to go judge later tonight. We'll see you. Maybe we'll see you in Louisville, don't miss that judges meeting Yep.

Good to see you, dave. Good to see you, mike. Thank you again. All right, bye-bye.

It was nice to catch up with Ben. Always good to see him, Always good to sit down and talk with him. I have no idea what he's going to do with that 48 scale Messerschmitt 323, but wow, I just when it's built. I don't know where you put it. It's kind of big, kind of big. So I'm sure he'll have fun. I'm sure what he produces will be great. I know that he's already talking to Barry Numerick because Barry has tons and tons of research and information on the 323. 323. So hopefully at some future.

NAT. Maybe as early as Hampton, we'll see Ben and his 48-scale Measure Schmidt 323.

Mike, we're almost at the end of our NAT-centric modeling episode. I assume you're down toward the end of your modeling fluid, as am I, so how is Breckenridge?

Breckenridge is surprisingly good. So, brad, thank you for that. It's a little on the sweeter side as far as bourbons go. Often that is due to the wheat content. Kind of up the wheat, it gets a little sweeter in the distillation. It's really good. I'm just about down to the halfway mark, so it's about to get a little Tamiya tape on the cork. We'll be transferred to Dave's Little Jamaica.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it Again. That's another thing. I don't know that I've ever seen Breckenridge here locally.

If you went to a big box it's probably there. Next time I go to Total Wine I'm going to look for it. But it's from Breckenridge, colorado. Whiskey with snow, melt water from the Rocky Mountains, that's kind of cool. It's interesting because my senior year of college we took one more family trip in December January of January 92, when we went to Breckenridge Colorado, went skiing, so got a little connection there. The bottle's cool. When it was full, on the backside there's a print of the Rocky Mountains, so when you look through the bourbon you can kind of get a little mosaic there of the mountains. So it's cool, it's good. It's a little sweet, not in a bad way, just as a general whiskey statement. It's on the sweet side, which makes it easy to drink. So it's pretty good. So, brad, thanks a lot, man. What else you got, dave?

Well, what I've got is the Black Hops Brewery Super Hornet Double IPA, brought to us out of Australia by our friend Paul Gloster. It's 8.7% ABV. The first sip of this is a little bit malty, but once you get into it it is just really really a nice beer, really really a nice beer, very drinkable, particularly for a beer that's 8.7% ABV, and tending toward the dark side. Sometimes those can be a little heavy and this is full body, don't get me wrong, but it's eminently drinkable and I really appreciate Paul bringing it because, again, I guarantee you, this is a beer that, were it not for our listeners and our modeling friends, that I'd have never been exposed to. And that's one of the things with the modeling fluid segment is I love getting exposed to new beers, new bourbons, new whatever that I wouldn't have otherwise had a chance to try, and it's just a new experience.

And this one was really good, was really good, mike. We got an extended set of shout outs here because, my gosh, we have so much to be thankful for and so many people to thank. That's one of the things that the Nationals makes me realize every time I go and even more so every time I go now how many great friends we have. How many people that were not for the podcast, we'd have never met. It's just absolutely a fantastic, fantastic experience.

So we got a lot of thank yous. We do, and to pile on to what you're saying there, it gets into the unexpected when we started the podcast.

Yes, we never thought of this.

Just the community around it has gotten really big. It's really cool, and even not just our podcast, all the others as well. We have a lot of overlap and this year we've got a lot. This year we've got a lot of folks who interacted with us and brought us some modeling fluid gifts or just stopped by to say hi or hung out with us in the dojo. And I'm going to start, I'm going to run through all the modeling fluid gifts we got, just by name. We'll get into what they actually gave, because those are going to be featured in upcoming episodes. All of them. Yep, absolutely. On the beer side, we got Matt Schaefer brought us something, and Matt's at Prior Shows, amps and Prior Nats has organized the big dinners out for us. We appreciate that. And he brought us a little something to enjoy. Eugene Suida and you mentioned Paul Gloucester. Yep, now I've got a blank here. Whoever brought the pistachio cream ale to the dojo? Please send us a private message, let us know who you are so we can duly credit you, because we appreciate that.

I think we wrote your name on the box and then we ripped open the box and put the beers in the cooler. I think that's what happened?

We lost track.

We lost track and we apologize. Please send it in.

Yes, please do. And on the whiskey and bourbon side, brad Belsheim tonight for tonight's Modeling Fluid. Also, michael Gaines, don Gilman and Andrew Boer all brought us bottles. So, dude, we're set for a while.

Yeah, and Hamilcar Barkas, our friend from Germany through Evan, brought significant— Michael Lees Michael Lees which I just call him Hamilcar Barkas because I'm used to that from his YouTube channel but he contributed. You know, the Germans are proud of their beer and so he and Evan went to a liquor store and he selected what he thought was the quality German import beers and he brought a lot of them to the dojo and a lot of them were drunk in the dojo, but we do have some that survived, so those will be showing up as future modeling fluids as well.

Well, that's the modeling fluids shout out. The next bullet item in the outline is all our normies.

Well, I want to start with Dave Goldfinch, who came, flew into Louisville, spent a couple of days here at my house. I got to take him to the Air Force Museum, got to take him to the LST in Evansville. We had just the best time in the world. It was fun hanging out with Goldfinch. Listen, if you listened to On the Bench and you should he is exactly the person you think he is when you hear him on the show. He is fun-loving and interesting and a great mate, as they might say in Australia. So I had a great time with Dave and the other Dave, dr David Gelbacher, who drove up and then went with us from Louisville to Madison had a wonderful time and always good to see Dr Dave Fantastic.

Well, we got plenty of other normies, man. Oh yeah, you mentioned him once before, probably a couple of times. Paul Gloucester, also from Australia, the quokka. He came in with Steve Hustad and Mark Copeland Yep.

The quokka. He came in with Steve Hustad and Mark Copeland, yep, and Steve Hustad's wife apparently was quite enamored with Paul and you can see why. He's just a really, really nice guy.

And then we saw all the other podcast friends of ours, mostly the geeks man. The geeks were there in force this year. They had a few absentees last year and it was nice to see Darren and company there and hang out and talk with all those guys at length and just a good time.

It was nice of them to show up in the dojo and drink plenty of our beer and bourbon. We do appreciate that, but of course, what do you expect from a bunch of Navy guys? It was great to see them. It was great to see Evan and Michael Hamilcar-Barkas. We managed to have a couple of shirts made up for Michael and got Evan his plastic model mojo checkerboard shirt which he wore to his presentation.

Well, we can't forget Adam Mann, their other friend.

Yes, that's right.

And he was hanging out with us and had a lot of good conversations about German armor and kind of the I don't know what to say the minutiae of that. Yes, he's a very detail-focused person and I really appreciated all the research he's doing and how it related to my preconceived notions and some of the work I'd done and things I'd seen. So appreciate Adam.

Oh, and finally, the Military Modelers Club of Louisville, our local club, brought a fair number of members, including Rich Gittig, our founder, dr Terry Hill, brian Bunger, the guy who runs Scale Reproduction, alex Restrepo, alex Restrepo.

And Julian the.

The Lexington modeler.

The Lexington modeler with the Austria connection.

Yes. So it was nice to see all of the MMCLers come. You always feel a little bit of pride when your local club shows up in force and it was nice to constantly look around the vendor room and see our club t-shirts walking up and down the aisles. So, guys, way to represent MMCL. I've got to say I'm a little proud. And Dave Crouch, dave Crouch, oh yeah, forgot Dave. Hi, dave, can't forget Dave Crouch. Great, no, because he not only that, but he's going to get us a good. He's the vendor coordinator for the local show and he's going to get us a really good table.

All right, Well, our next shout out section is other folks from Nats who are either not our normies or not modeling fluid gifters.

Yes. In this category I would like to particularly recognize all of the people listeners generally who I ran into who told me it was their first nationals ever. There were at least six of them and every single one of them just had the biggest grins on their faces. They were enjoying themselves like kids in a candy store. Every one of them. I always ask the same question to every one of them is did I oversell the Nationals? And every one of them told me no, I did not. And I got to tell you. I take a little pride in that. That warms my heart because I know the memories they're going to take away from that experience and I envy them that experience.

Well, I was firsthand witness to most of that and yeah, when folks are grinning ear to ear, you just know it's their first one.

You could tell. When they walked up to us, you could absolutely tell, because they didn't know they were smiling, it was involuntary and it was from ear to ear. You could identify them on sight.

Well, I want to shout out Bill Moore from Middle Tennessee. Yes, bill runs a Facebook group called the World of armor and he was certainly at the show and I, I read I'd run into him at Knoxville when I stopped, stopped by Knoxville in the spring and he'd wanted to use the logo on the back of his shirt. So plastic model mojo is on the back of his shirt with a lot of other pretty a well-known either podcasts or model businesses et cetera. Um, he gave us both t-shirts for the world of armor, for his Facebook group. Really appreciate it. And you know he'd invited us to dinner Thursday night several times, but you know we already had some commitments with our what we call our normies, yeah, and just couldn't pull it off. So, bill, sorry about that, but thanks for the shirt and it's good talking to you. And I think he was at the dojo one of the nights. He was.

And we've got to catch up with you at some future show. We'll go out and grab either lunch or dinner.

And I also want to shout out Bob Bear. Yes, bob, under duress, was the emcee for the podcast Roundtable. And I say under duress not because because he wanted, he didn't, did not want to do it. Bob fell victim to some gastrointestinitis issues somewhere early in the show and was riding the southbound train on the GNI express. You're going to have to write into the show and tell us what was worse the GNI railroad or having TSA wreck your models. I'm real curious. Got any?

more, dave. Well, I do want to thank Steve Hustad, mark Copeland, all the people we went out to dinner with the various nights. Madison has some amazing restaurants and food. We went to a supper club. We went to a supper club, we went to a Mexican restaurant, we went to a brew pub. Everywhere we went, we were with large crowds of modelers, and for all of you that we got to break bread with, I want to thank you. It was a wonderful experience.

Well, the final bullet on our shout out outline this episode is our patrons and financial supporters. We really appreciate this folks. Eric Kintzer and Robert Halleck are our two new patrons and just to that, chuck Doherty and Roger Newman have increased their contribution from their original pledge to something greater, and we really appreciate that. On PayPal, we've got Michael Hanlon and Scott Stachowiak who've donated over recent months to PayPal Guys. Right now, today, right now, I think we appreciate this even more because we keep alluding to it.

We've got something in the works, a new platform. We're still kind of keeping that close to vest. We get a little further down the road, but all this helps us offset the cost and make this a reality and I think everybody's going to enjoy it once we get there. So everybody can turn you through PayPal or Patreon. We really appreciate it. If you go to the show notes for this episode or any of the past handful, you can find the links to all those avenues of support and we just really appreciate it. It goes a great way to help us bring this show to everyone out there.

We're targeting some big changes, and those big changes require money, and we appreciate everybody who supports what we do. It's really, really gratifying. Well, dave, you got anything else? No other than I need to sleep for a while. Man, I've got to recover. In the words of Roger Murtaugh, I'm getting too old.

Well, until you get your rest, dave, as we always say, so many kits, so little time, mike. Well, folks, thanks for joining us and, dave, I'll see you on the flip side after you get a little rest. You got it.